Peyton’s Take: Broncos at Giants

Peyton Manning finished 30-of-43 for 307 yards, two touchdowns, zero interceptions with a QB rating of 105.5 in Denver’s Week 2 win against the Giants.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.Y. – Peyton and Eli Manning met on the field for the third time in their NFL careers, and for the third time, Peyton emerged with the victory.

A week after throwing for seven scores, Manning added another two in Sunday’s win against the Giants. Both came in the second half as the Broncos pulled away en route to a 41-23 win at MetLife Stadium.

“Well, we made some adjustments,” Manning said of the second-half surge. “We went a little more two-tight ends in the second half. We were mostly one tight end, three wides in the first half. I thought the two tight ends was a good change for us.”

Peyton Manning threw for 307 yards, completing 30-of-43 attempts with a pair of touchdowns and zero interceptions to finish with a 105.5 rating.

His younger brother, Eli also topped the 300-yard mark, finishing 28-of-49 for 362 yards with one touchdowns and four interceptions for a 53.3 rating. Three of Eli’s interceptions came as the Giants tried to climb back into the game in the fourth quarter.

“It is a strange situation,” Manning said of earning a win against his brother. “It’s kind of hard – it’s a unique situation. Not many other players have to go through it, so you can’t ask too many people for advice on it. Good team win for us and good road win.”

On the year, Manning has now thrown for nine scores without an interception – setting an NFL record for touchdown passes in the first two games of a season.

He tied his own NFL record with his 15th-straight game registering a passer rating of at least 90.0.

Barring a postseason meeting, this matchup won’t happen under the NFL’s current scheduling formula for another four years.

“I think both of us are glad that it is over with,” Manning said. “Postseason is one thing, but I don’t believe I’ll make it to the next regular-season one, so I think this’ll be the end of it. I’ll be happy about that. I know my family will.”

On Denver’s opening drive, Manningbecame the third player in NFL history, joining Brett Favre and Dan Marino, to throw for 60,000 career yards. He is the fastest of the three to accomplish the feat, reaching the milestone in 7,841 attempts.

Manning continued to spread the ball around, completing passes to eight different Broncos in the game.

A week after catching just two passes for 32 yards, Eric Decker emerged as Manning’s top target against the Giants. Decker posted a game-high nine catches for 87 yards in the win.

“Last week was over with,” Manning said. “Eric had a good week of practice. He’s a focused guy. He’s a guy who has a lot of pride, who wants to play well every week for his team. He had a good week of practice – I knew he would play well today. I thought he really responded well. It wasn’t anything intentional. He was going to be a part of the game plan the entire game today, as he will all season. Last week’s game for him – that was not a factor by any means.”

Although he was happy to leave with a win, Manning admitted it wasn’t as enjoyable as other victories since it meant his brother suffered the loss.

“It’s a strange feeling,” Manning said. “It’s not like beating another team. It’s not probably quite as enjoyable as it would be if you had beaten somebody else. Surly it was a good team win. Coach Fox put a lot of emphasis on being a good road team. We didn’t start out well on the road last season, so to come in here and beat a good football team on the road, hopefully we can build off of that.”

All three phases have positives to build on as the defense picked off four of Eli Manning’s passes, helping give Manning and the Broncos’ offense good field position.

Trindon Holliday provided an exclamation point with his 81-yard punt return touchdown in the fourth quarter as well. That return kept Peyton Manning on the sidelines, but the Broncos quarterback was happy to see the team score points without him on the field.

“It was a good team victory,” Manning said. “I thought Holliday’s return came at a critical time. We were determined to get a drive there and Holliday certainly made it easy for us. That was critical. The defense did a good job keeping us in it, holding them to some field goals when we weren’t quite on our game offensively. That was a good team effort, which I think you have to have against good teams.”